Trials and Tribulations of a Duck
by MightyBanks
Summary: Adam Banks is back at Eden Hall for his last 6 months of school. He has new problems to face, and new people to meet. No main couples yet decided upon!


_Disclaimer: I dont own the Mighty Ducks (duh) and only own characters you don't recognise._

_Enjoy!_

_Chapter One: Holidays_

Family holidays… they certainly weren't my favourite thing to do, but mum and dad always felt compelled to drag me and Josh along. This one wasn't too bad though. So far we'd been snowboarding and skiing. Tomorrow we'd be going back to Minnesota... Oh fun! We'd get to be in a car for Christmas! Mum and Dad decided to go right out this year, and instead of going by plane, or even train, they decided it would be best to go by car, so we could get an insight into other people's family trips. I didn't enjoying the driving everywhere, I must admit, it always made me feel car sick.

"Boys, would you please put those sticks down?" my mother asked impatiently. Josh and I had just been passing a puck around on the cement for hours, and now the lights were burning brightly all around us. Mum did not approve of hockey in the slightest, my dad though was crazy about it. Mum hoped that I wouldn't turn out like him and Josh, my older brother, she wanted me to be the one that would sit inside reading, or play some safe game like badminton. No thanks.

"Just another shot mum, then I'll be all yours," I said to her, grinning. I hit the puck into the makeshift goal behind Josh and then turned to mum again. She wasn't looking impressed.

"Come on, Josh, you too. You will take Adam to the kids Christmas party."

"What!" I snorted, rather unimpressed to say the least.

"It's for teenagers, and you will go with him without complaining."

I rolled my eyes and skated past mum back into our cabin, where my dad told me to take the skate's off before my mother killed me. I laughed and did as he said before heading upstairs to get dressed into something more suitable for a party. Josh came into the room we were sharing not long after and began to change as well.

We were lucky, we had the best view from our window, but it was the bedroom with two single beds, so mum and dad couldn't have it. We could see out over the rest of the resort, and into the mountains beyond... this didn't come at a small price, either. We were situated in the most expensive of the cabins, which was more like a large house. We had our own little skiing area, which was really lucky because I was pretty bad at it for some reason.

"Boys!"

Mother again. She was always on our backs to be on time for everything!

"Now Adam," she began as we were walking down the stairs, "I expect you to let Josh know where you are at all times, and Josh, keep an eye on him and don't get into too much mischief."

"What? Mum I'm only two years younger than him! That's hardly fair," I protested angrily.

"I agree with Addie," Josh laughed and I swatted him for calling me that.

"And I want you to be back here no later than 12 pm, got it?" mum continued as though she didn't hear our protests.

So Josh and I walked down the path to the main lodge, where we could see disco lights and people through the windows, milling around and dancing. The upstairs looked much more exciting, and we figured that must have been where the adult's party was.

Josh found the friends he'd made the night before almost as soon as we entered. My friends had left this morning though, so I was left standing looking like an idiot for about half an hour before I decided to take a seat.

There were couches all around the walls, apart from where the doors were, and I found myself a rather secluded area to sit in and watch the people passing by. There was a girl being harassed by a couple of boys next to me, she had an accent I couldn't quite place, so I figured she wasn't from the USA or Canada. I thought about ignoring the fact that she didn't seem to be enjoying the attention, but as always the good in me came out and I couldn't let them bug her, so I got up and asked them nicely to leave her alone.

"What are you gonna do about it preppy?" one of the boys snarled.

"Yeah cake eater, you can't bash me with 100 dollar bills!" the other said laughing at his own pathetic joke. I just rolled my eyes - that was so typical, and to be perfectly honest I thought I'd dressed down quite a lot tonight.

"I'm going to ask you again," I told them, wiping any hint of a smile off my face. "Leave the lady alone or we'll have to take this outside."

"What? You too snobby to hit me here?" The taller one took a swing at me and I quickly blocked it, swiping my leg at the back of his knees making him fall on his back to the ground and winding him. The other tried to kick me, but I blocked it also. "Leave it, man," the one on the ground mumbled, between gasps.

I held out my hand out to the blonde girl, and she gave me a relieved smile and stood up, ignoring my hand. I smiled and took it back and then walked back to where I was sitting, motioning for her to sit as well.

"My name's Adam."

"I'm Alula," she told me.

"That's an interesting name. Where is it from?"

"I don't know," she laughed. "I'm not too fond of it though. It's an alright name when it's not yours."

We talked for a while and I found out she was Australian, and she was here with her mother and siblings, on holiday.

"Canada's nice," she said. "We've been here for three weeks."

"Really? I've been here for two, and I haven't seen you!" I was sure I would have seen her had she been here that long. I know I kept to myself a fair bit, but surely she would have been at breakfasts and dinners, when we didn't eat in the cabin.

"Oh, I've only been 'here' here for two days, but I've been in Canada three weeks. We're going back to Australia on the 26th."

We talked until about 11pm when she went to find her brother and we exchanged mobile numbers.

"I'll call you in the morning, before we leave and maybe we can get breakfast or something?" I asked her. She nodded and was gone. After that I decided to go back up to the cabin, though I told Josh what I was doing first, of course.

The cabin was dark when I arrived and I went straight to my room after pressing in the pin number to get inside, and I went to bed so I'd be ready for the trip tomorrow.

"Adam! Josh!"

"Go away," I vaguely heard Josh mumble from across the room.

"What time is it?" I asked sleepily.

"It's 8. Breakfast is almost over and if we don't hurry we'll miss it."

I didn't see Alula at breakfast, and when I tried to ring my phone told me that she couldn't be reached, please try again later. I was pretty bummed about that. I mean, she seemed a really nice girl and I wanted to find out when she would be coming to the states. Or, if she would be coming, at least.

"We met the loveliest lady last night," my mother told Josh and I as we ate. "She's from Australia and she'll be moving with her family to Minnesota in about six months. I said she was welcome to come and visit us as soon as she pleased, and gave her our address."

"Does she have children?" I asked, a little too enthusiastically, resulting in flying porridge. My father passed me a napkin.

"Yes. You may have seen them. They are all blonde, one was named Tomas, one Michelle and the other started with an A... Ally or something. I can't remember it was a strange name wasn't it?" She said to dad. He just shrugged.

"Was it Alula?" I asked, my heart beating slightly faster than normal.

"Yes!" My mum almost yelled. "That's what it was! They had to leave last night because of some emergency with Janet's husband. Janet is Alula's mums' name," mum told me as if I was stupid when I looked at her quizzically.

I couldn't believe it… Minnesota!

The car trip wasn't as bad as I would have expected because I had something to think about. Mum wouldn't stop talking about Janet and how excited she was. I showed her a photo of Alula that I'd saved on my phone last night.

"Oh how lovely!" she exclaimed. "Look at her Phillip!"

"Josie I'm driving! Would you please go to sleep or something?" Dad snapped slightly. Mum looked a little put out and Josh and I laughed. She gave me phone back and pouted most of the way home, until we were about an hour from Minnesota and she got all excited again.

It was dark when we finally did get home. I was so tired I couldn't even be bothered opening my presents which we'd left at home under the lighted, plastic Christmas tree that reached the roof.

I opened a couple to keep mum happy and then I went to bed. Mum had got me a book on great philosophers... why, I do not know... and dad got me a new helmet and hockey stick, with the number 99 and Banks written on both.

I tried ringing Alula again, but I couldn't get through.

The day before school started again, and about a week after we'd arrived home, I got together with the Ducks, the team I'd played for, and with, since district 5 in the Peewees hockey, and we got back into hockey straight away. It was our last half year at school and we really wanted to make the most of it.

The snow was really thick on the ground this year and I loved it. After practise we had a snow fight for about two hours, and when I got home and in the shower I felt black and blue, though I didn't really look it. Dwayne Robertson, one of the Ducks, still hadn't learnt that it wasn't fair to make ice balls.

Charlie, the captain of the Mighty Ducks, came to my house in the morning to pick me up. Well, he didn't really pick me up, he just waited for me and we skated to school. He was probably my best friend out of the whole team. When we were younger, I played for the Hawks, like my father and my elder brother before me had, but all the Ducks hated the Hawks, then I got changed to the Ducks because I was in the wrong area and Charlie was the first one to give me a proper go, I'll never forget that.

When we arrived at Eden Hall, our school, we met the other Ducks out the front where we usually did. We only had to wait for about five minutes for Guy, who had missed his bus.

"Well guys," Charlie said. "Welcome back!"


End file.
